Hot Tub Time Machine 2
Director: Steve Pink
Starring: Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, Clark Duk
93 mins; Class 15;
KRS Releasing Ltd
Oh for heaven’s sake, this is getting beyond a (non) joke. I don’t think I have ever had to sit through such a long series of damp squibs in the comedy annals and Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (HTTM 2) sadly continues that trend.
Hollywood’s funny bone… where are you?
HTTM 2 is, of course, a sequel to 2010’s Hot Tub Time Machine left off, with none of the humour and charm that characterised the first.
Instead, it brings with it instead a lame premise which this time sends the protagonists into the future; a one-dimensional and wholly unlikeable ensemble.
There is no story or character depth to speak of, just the inevitable run of sexual and toilet humour.
Making matters worse is that the ever-affable John Cusack, who so successfully played Adam, the straight foil to his manic mates in the first film, is absent, having in all likelihood read the script and politely deciding to pass on it.
Lou (Rob Corddry) is now a successful music mogul, yet is still completely immature, interested only with women and partying.
None of the humour and charm that characterised the first
When, at one of his extravagant parties, someone tries to kill him by shooting him in his nether regions, he, his friend Nick (Craig Robinson) and estranged son Jacob (Clark Duke) fire up the hot tub time machine – now ensconced in Lou’s palatial home – in an attempt to get back to the past to discover who the would-be assassin is.
However, they end up in the future itself where they meet Adam. (Adam Scott). Stuck in the future, they need to figure out how to get back to the present.
That Lou is shot where he is shot pretty much acts as a neon-lit signpost for what sort of humour the movie is going to adopt and, sure enough, preoccupations with the male member seems to be the driving force here.
Corddry’s character is in the running for most insufferable screen character of the year as he struts his stuff and shouts his way through his lines.
Robinson and Duke are mere sidekicks with little of note to do, as they mug their way through a script chock-full of dud lines.
The character of Adam Jr – whom, we discover, is the 30-something long-lost son of Adam Snr – is a character ill-advisedly thought up, probably to make up for Cusack’s absence.
n the meantime as can sadly be expected, the women on show are treated as brainless, booby beings.
There is absolutely nothing here of the daft but utterly likability of the first movie where the crassness was overcome by the nostalgic warmth at the heart of that story about adults revisiting their youth. An unfunny, un-inspired and uncalled for sequel.